


Bound to the Beast

by lioness47



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, Arranged Marriage, Creepy Snoke (Star Wars), Dark Reylo, Dom/sub, Dubious Consent, F/M, Inappropriate Use of the Force, Kinky, Kinky Kylo Ren, Non-Consensual Spanking, Will be a Woman by Medieval Standards When Things Get Dirty, Young Rey Early On Only, gothic vibes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:21:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25594198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lioness47/pseuds/lioness47
Summary: When young Rey learns she's betrothed to the infamous Supreme Lord Kylo Ren, she most certainly won't accept her fate like a dutiful girl should.What does he want with an orphan anyway?Well, she'll be damned if she's going to wait around to find out.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 42
Kudos: 185





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Though I've read Reylo, this is my first foray into writing about the Star Wars universe or its characters. 
> 
> Actually, I don't think I can do justice to the massive world and lore, so I've set this fic in a realm where I've written a few other stories - medieval. Up until this point, I've only ever written Petyr x Sansa/Game of Thrones stories, so this will have similar vibes, as I love patient manipulation over brute force. 
> 
> This is a Medieval AU with a touch of Force Magic. It's going to get kinky.

On her tenth birthday, a terrible, inconceivable fate befell Rey of the Jakku Orphanage.

Worse than never knowing her parents and growing up in that filthy place. Rey had become used to her ratty bed and besides, things had improved since Finn escaped Lord Solo’s realm. She and her new friend got into all kinds of delightful trouble together.

But when Rey turned ten, the news she received froze her blood. It couldn’t be true, _it couldn’t._

She must have said those words aloud, though she could scarcely hear anything for the roar in her own ears.

Sister Mildreth replied, “Oh yes, child. Not that a dirty little rat such as yourself deserves such a wonderful, powerful husband. But for some reason known only to God, he’s chosen you as his bride. You were betrothed in a service this morning.”

“But I wasn’t even there!” Rey shouted. “I didn’t choose to be… betrothed or whatever.”

Mildreth tutted, “As if that matters. Do you think noble babes in the cradle get a say in the matter when their parents pledge them to one another? Such an ungrateful brat. You should be thanking God in his great mercy for giving you such a fine husband. Be grateful you’re allowed to stay here and continue your righteous education until such time as your husband comes to collect you.” 

Rey knew all about the evil lord. Everyone did.

_He’s ten feet tall and he’s a monster on the battlefield,_ the peasants claimed. _He tortures his enemies. A beast of a man._

Rey knew more than even whispered rumors, because Finn told her scary stories of his past late at night, when they were meant to be sleeping. Finn Forest, her best friend, named for the wood where they found him -- outside the orphanage, scavenging for food.

Something Ray and Finn had in common.

“She can’t marry Lord Solo, or Kylo Ren, or whatever he’s calling himself now!” Finn protested, and Rey’s heart swelled at the bravery of her friend. “He’s pure evil! And Rey is only ten!”

Mildreth laughed. “Of course Lord Ren will wait until your flowering, as is the law. But it’s been decreed, child. We’ll wait for her blood and when she comes of age, she’ll be given to the Supreme Lord.”

“The what?” Finn asked, making a face of disgust.

“Lord Ren has been gaining power, amassing a great army. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s king someday.”

“I don’t understand,” Rey said, distraught. “Why would he want to marry me? How does he even know who I am?”

“It’s not for you to understand. It’s for you to do as you’re bid.”

Rey gathered her tiny body to its fullest height, puffing out her little chest as far as she could. She bared her teeth, feral, defiant.

“I don’t care if he’s a lord or a leader or king! I don’t care if he calls himself the supreme god, I won’t marry him, I won’t!”

Her refusal earned her nothing but the full force of Mildreth’s sharp smack across her cheek.

#

“I’ve got a plan,” Rey whispered. Though the hour grew late, her cheek still bore the mark from Sister Mildreth’s hand.

“What is it?” Finn asked, rolling over in his bed.

“I’ll run away. Before I flower. Or… the day I get my blood. Whatever. I’ll run away and I’ll marry someone else. The church is too powerful, even Kylo Ren can’t undo a holy bond that God has joined. There are a few villages I can make it to in less than three days’ journey on foot. I think. I’ll find a priest or a monk who will marry me to someone else. Then Kylo can’t touch me. I don’t understand what he wants with me anyway.”

“Who you gonna wed, Rey?” Finn asked.

“I – I don’t know.” She hadn’t thought that far yet.

“You could marry me,” he offered, shyly.

Rey smiled. “You’d do that for me?”

“Of course.”

“Did you ever see him?” Rey asked, with a mixture of curiosity and fear. “When you were conscripted to fight for his army?”

Finn shook his head.

Rey frowned, staring at the water stains on the ceiling.

“I just can’t imagine what he wants with me. Or how he even knows who I am.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Come on!” Rey whisper-shouted. “We’ve _got_ to hurry!”

Finn was so much bigger, yet Rey was the faster of the two, the better fighter. They’d been secreting away together and practicing their combat skills for the last four years. Begging the nearby farmer’s son to teach them everything he knew. Even making up moves entirely on their own.

Now, at fourteen, Rey had gained considerable skill with a quarterstaff, the only weapon she could fashion in the orphanage.

Kylo Ren grew in power during that time as well. Astoundingly so. There were even rumors he practiced some kind of dark sorcery, something Finn had wondered at in the past.

Rey didn’t believe such nonsense, any more than she believed the nun’s pious bleating.

“Hurry!” Rey shouted, her quick, light footsteps making little sound through the moonlit forest. She groaned, pressing one hand to her abdomen.

The village lay just beyond the wood. She and Finn could rest, and, in the morning, find the local priest and get married.

When her blood stained her bedsheets, Rey hastened to wake her sleeping friend and slip out the window in the middle of the night. Her flowering had been so delayed, she’d wondered if it might not come at all.

“Too skinny,” the nuns tutted on her fourteenth birthday. “Always running around like a boy. It’s no wonder god hasn’t touched your womb yet. Perhaps you’re barren. Then what will the Supreme Lord do with you?”

_Leave me alone,_ Rey hoped. She never understood why he’d chosen to marry her in the first place and the nuns never deigned to explain. More puzzling, if it was true, then why did he allow her to continue to live at the orphanage?

Following her birthday, the nuns made Ray lay in bed for five days as they prayed for God to touch her womb. Rey grew so bored she thought she’d lose her mind. Finn’s visits were the only thing that cheered her, especially when he snuck oatcakes from the kitchen.

But maybe the damn nuns’ prayers reached God’s ears, because a fortnight after their devotions, she bled onto her bedsheets.

“There!” Rey cried, as she broke the treeline. In the distance she spied the village firelights. Finn caught up, grabbing her hand from behind.

Rey turned and gave him a wide, toothy grin.

“Thank you,” she said. “My… husband.”

“Of course,” he replied, “my wife.”

She must have been mistaken, but Rey could almost swear Finn’s eyes brimmed with tears.

#

“Do you have anything to confess before God?” The old priest asked.

_Only that I’m defying the supreme lord by marrying Finn,_ Rey thought.

_Oh, and that I don’t act the lady and I sneak off to practice fighting._

_And I’m the one who put a dead mouse on Sister Mildrith’s pillow every night for a week._

“No, father,” Rey said. “I have nothing to confess.”

“And you, my son?” he asked.

Finn shook his head. “No. I’ve got nothing either.”

Rey straightened the hem of her dress. She’d bathed and changed out of her tattered breeches that morning. The dress was an old, brown thing of itchy wool, but it was the best she could scrounge from the orphanage. Despite her slight figure, the garment was too small, having been meant for a girl of ten or twelve. Not only did it offer a seductive glimpse of Rey’s slim ankles, but it displayed her neckline right down to the tops of her breasts. She heard of noblewomen wearing such fashions, but she’d seen nothing of the sort in the villages or the orphanage.

The priest’s darting eyes told her he’d seen nothing of the sort either.

“Then by the power invested in me by the Holy Father,” he said, managing to wrest his gaze from Rey’s chest, “I now pronounce you man and wife.”

_It’s done!_ Rey thought.

Finn placed a chaste kiss on her cheek and led her from the old, stone temple.

“We’re wed!” Rey exclaimed, smiling. Then she bit her lip.

“I – I’m having my blood,” she stuttered, embarrassed. “We don’t have to… consummate tonight. If you don’t want to. No one will ever know. We’re married, it’s enough.”

Finn brought a hand to her cheek and Rey blushed.

“I would never leave anything to chance. Not when it comes to you, Rey.”

Rey smiled, nervously, squeezing her eyes shut. Finn was her friend, talking about consummating their union was embarrassing enough. The mention of her monthly blood made it unbearable.

“I owe you my life,” Rey said. “Thank you.”

“Come on.” Finn grabbed her hand. “Let’s go back to the inn.”

#

As the door opened and five well-armored knights filed into the room, the raucous tavern chatter died down. Whispers grew in its place.

_“The Knights of Ren,”_ Rey heard someone say in a hushed tone, and her heart stopped.

_It couldn’t be._

As the soldiers walked toward her, the hair on Rey’s arms stood on end. Her throat tightened. She dropped the spoon she’d been holding to scoop up the warm stew before her. In the dreadful silence, its clatter echoed.

_He couldn’t have found me. How could he know? How could he dispatch men this fast?_

Closer, the knights came, eyes trained on Rey.

_Why_ does he want me, anyway?

Rey’s heart pounded, her mind screamed for her to flee. But where could she run? Surely she couldn’t escape and these men were bound to have horses outside.

_Oh, why hadn’t she and Finn stolen a horse themselves?_

“Rey of the Jakku Orphanage,” the knight said, approaching her table. It wasn’t a question, just a formal address.

_No,_ Rey thought. _I’m not her. I never wanted that life. I don’t want any part of that awful orphanage._

Jutting out her chin, Rey declared, “I’m Rey Forest. This is my lord husband, Finn.”

Speaking evenly, the knight replied, “Your marriage is invalid. You were married to the Supreme Lord last night.”

“That… no. I did _not._ That’s not true! I was _here._ The innkeeper can attest to it and the priest will swear he married us, he’s bound by God.”

Rey slammed her fist onto the wooden table and shot to her feet. People were staring but she didn’t care. Vaguely, she felt Finn’s hand on her leg.

“You were already married by proxy last night. It’s legal in the eyes of God and bears ironclad adherence to the law. Should any man touch you other than your lord husband, it would be a crime of adultery, for which you and the offender would both hang.”

Rey needed her heart to calm down. She pressed her hand to her breast as if that would slow its speed.

“No, that’s _not_ true. I wasn’t there. I didn’t consent.”

“Consent is not required on the part of the woman," the knight scoffed. "Nor is your presence, not when a proxy vows on your behalf. You are Lady Ren now.”

_This isn’t happening,_ Rey thought, stomach sinking. _It can’t be true._

“You belong to the Supreme Lord Ren from this day until the day you die.”

Rey shook her head, tears pricking her eyes. Everyone heard, everyone saw. She could never escape Kylo Ren. Not now.

_Why? Why did he want her?_


	3. Chapter 3

“Wait, Rey,” Finn pled, grabbing her forearm.

Rey yanked her arm free and pulled her hood over her head.

“I know all about waiting,” she said. “Waiting for my parents to come. And the worst of it was, they never did. Now I’m waiting for him to come. And the worst of it will be if he _does.”_

Surprisingly, after their tavern encounter, the Knights of Ren had returned them both to the orphanage. As prisoners... in truth if not in name. But as the months passed, Finn had been granted certain freedoms Rey had not.

Kylo Ren was behind it, of course. And Rey wouldn’t be surprised if the entire Jakku Church and Nunnery were under his thumb. Their support of the only lord with enough power to oppose the king and the royal Palpatine dynasty was, while not outright treasonous, certainly _curious._

“Let me come with you,” Finn protested.

“No. You’re safe here at the orphanage. I don’t understand why either of us are still given shelter here. We’re too old to be kept with the children… but… I know you’re safe here. I can’t explain it, but somehow… I know.”

If she tried to describe the feeling to Finn, she worried he’d dismiss it, or worse, call it witchcraft. Besides, lately he’d been spending time with Rose, the blacksmith’s apprentice from the village, and he seemed… happy.

Rey had to escape. This time, alone.

“I’ll send a letter to Rose once I’m safe,” she said, hugging Finn goodbye.

Torn, he watched as she slipped into the night.

#

Rey had never been this deep in the ancient forest before. The ground squished under her boots, thick with fern and moss. That same moss clung to the trees, lichen fingers reaching from the underworld to drag the pillars of the forest back down below. Yet the trees grew high and dense as if to escape the assault, their roots and branches twisting in battle. A loamy scent assailed her nose, one moment fresh with the birth and life of forest, the next pungent with rot, the base note of death.

Though careful, the slippery rocks proved difficult to traverse as Rey ran beneath a moonless sky. She fell, several times, cutting her hands and knees.

Still she scrambled back to her feet and ran again, her heavy breath the only sound.

Where had all the nocturnal creatures gone?

Rey shook her head and pushed on, determined.

She refused to admit she was lost.

She wasn’t. Not really.

If she stayed at the orphanage, she was truly lost.

Here, there was hope.

Even as Rey fell again, she clung to hope.

Even as slumped, half-dragging herself further, deeper into the wood.

Even as she spun in circles, no longer sure in which direction to turn.

That’s when she was certain the air had stilled.

No owl hooted into the crisp night. No bugs chirped or buzzed or flew. There was something otherworldly about the silence.

She turned, and saw the black figure emerge from the trees.

Cloaked in darkness from head to toe. Gloved, hooded, masked. A creature from the underworld itself, a demon.

Rey gasped, her blood froze, her _feet_ froze.

 _Who was it,_ what _was it?_

 _I’m imagining things,_ she told herself, even as her heart pounded.

Closer, it stalked, towering in form. 

_Run, you idiot!_ Her mind screamed, but she couldn’t.

Rey was forced to tilt her head up just to take in the height of the creature, though he stopped and stood several feet away. 

She gasped again as the demon raised his arm, sure he was going to kill her.

“Wait-” Rey whispered the plea before darkness overtook her.

#

Finn’s large, brown eyes were the first thing Rey saw.

She blinked.

“What happened?”

“You went out for a walk and got lost in the woods, Rey,” Finn said slowly, pointedly. “We were lucky someone found you and brought you home safely.”

“Yes… someone did. But who, child?”

Rey’s skin crawled at the sound of that voice. Father Snoke had recently come to oversee the church and all its holdings, and everything about him chilled her.

“Perhaps we should examine the girl… make sure she’s still… intact.”

Rey sat up at that suggestion, unconsciously clenching her legs.

“That won’t be necessary,” Sister Mildrith said. “You can see from the horrid breeches she’s wearing there was no tearing, no sign of struggle at the lacing.”

“What if she willingly unlaced them herself?” Father Snoke suggested, the leer in his voice making Rey want to throw up.

“I – I did _not,”_ Rey insisted.

“I hardly think the Supreme Lord will want her… tainted,” the withered priest said.

“I hardly think he’ll want her… touched,” the feisty nun countered.

For once, Rey was thankful for Sister Mildrith’s ferocity.

“I’m untouched,” Rey vowed. “I will swear it before God.”

“There,” Mildrith smiled. “Come my dear, let us pray and give thanks for your safe return.”

With an arm draped around Rey’s shoulder, she ushered the slender girl out of the sleeping quarters and toward the church.

#

“Rey, you can’t really think to run away _again!”_ Finn exclaimed.

“I can’t stay and wait. It’s been almost two years and we’re no closer to finding out why Kylo wants me. He grows in power every day. I don’t know who found me in the woods… I don’t know how I came back here. But sometimes… in my dreams… I remember a cloaked figure…”

Rey shook her head.

 _It’s as if he’s watching me,_ she wanted to say. _It’s as if he found me that night._ But that was impossible.

She was nearly sixteen and for some reason, her birthday loomed like a borderline or a crossroads. Rey had a feeling time at the orphanage was running out. Kylo was coming to collect her.

This time, she’d do better in her escape.

This time, she’d steal a horse.

It proved to be even easier than she thought. The fruit merchant liked to drink himself into oblivion on days between shipments. Rey simply mounted his old gray mare and took off, leaving the Jakku village behind.

She didn’t make it very far.

#

_Thump-thump, thump-thump._

Over the open field, Rey heard the hoofbeats close behind her.

She whipped her head around and her mouth dropped.

It was the black demon. On horseback. More imposing than ever.

His massive horse seemed to run faster than it should for bearing such weight. The rider wore the same dark outfit, the same mask from her forest encounter - this time with his long black cloak billowing in the wind.

 _It was real,_ Rey thought. _I didn’t imagine it._

She swallowed.

_It’s him. Lord Ren._

Outracing his steed was unlikely, but she tried. Holding tight and low to her horse, she kicked her heels, spurring her mare _faster._

She’d chosen a westerly route, toward the mountains. They were too distant for her to make out, even with the glow of the full moon, but she knew they lay ahead. She thought perhaps she could hide in some valley or cave… somewhere.

Rey heard her pursuer gain on her.

 _“Run,”_ she willed the mare, half with her words and half with… her mind?

But within moments the other rider drew beside her, matching her stride-for-stride, even as it meant slowing down his horse. 

Impossibly, the cloaked figure reached over and _grabbed her._

Rey shrieked. It felt almost as if she half-floated on air. While her small body couldn’t have been much for the hooded creature to handle, the ease, the weightlessness with which he transferred her to his horse felt unnatural.

Somehow, she even turned mid-air, so that when her rear smacked the saddle, she faced the dark figure, her head pressed against his broad chest. One of his large hands held the reigns while the other snaked tightly around her waist, holding her to him. Lewdly, her legs splayed on either side of the saddle, straddling his lap, rubbing her against his… maleness.

“Let me go!” Rey shouted. She tried to sound formidable, to cover her fear. She pushed against the rider’s chest, trying to squirm free of the arm that encircled her.

When her efforts proved useless, when he ignored her pleas, Rey’s indignation grew. 

“I know who you are,” she said, low and wrathful. “You’re Kylo Ren. I know it.”

The rider chuckled, and even before he spoke, the deep timbre of his laugh sent a curious sensation through Rey.

“True.”

Rey blinked. She thought he’d deny it. Faced with the easy confirmation, she wasn’t sure what to say or do.

_So this is Lord Ren. The tales were true. He’s massive._

After a few steadying breaths, Rey licked her lips and asked, “How did you find me? Why do want me as your…” she couldn’t say the word _wife._ “…what do you want with me?”

“All in good time,” he replied. 

Steeling herself, Rey tilted her head back, but the dark mask covered even his eyes with some kind of material she could not see through. Slowly, Rey slid her arm higher, to yank the mask from his face -- but suddenly, her arm froze.

“Uh-uh,” Kylo _tsked,_ causing Rey to gasp once more. Her arm refused to move. He was doing it… how?

He _was_ a sorcerer!

Without the ability to hold on or balance herself, Rey was forced to relax into Kylo’s chest, to allow his arm to keep her from falling. His body was so hard, strong and yet… warm, at the same. No, that wasn’t the right word. Soft? No, that wasn’t it either. _What was it?_

“You’re not my… husband,” Rey made herself say the word, though it felt ridiculous on her tongue. “I didn’t marry you.”

“But you did.”

“It’s not true! Not to me!” Rey tried to clench her fists but found she couldn’t even perform that small action.

“We’ll see.”

Kylo steered the reigns, turning the stallion around. At the same time, his arm held her even tighter, pulling her slightly to lean into the sharp turn.

“Where are we going?” she demanded.

“You’re going back to the Jakku Orphanage.”

“Why?”

“That is not your concern. Sleep now, little one.”

Rey’s last thought was, _I’m not going to sleep, I’m not tired._

She fell asleep.

#

Rey awoke, blinking at the water stains on the orphanage ceiling.

She sat up in bed. Once again, Finn, Father Snoke, and Sister Mildrith were at her bedside.

“You’re most fortunate, child,” Sister Mildrith said. “Lord Ren happened to be visiting Jakku on business when he found you escaping.”

 _Horseshit,_ Rey thought.

“The Supreme Lord has a kind heart,” Sister Mildrith continued. “He’s asked us not to give you the beating you so richly deserve.”

Father Snoke didn’t look pleased about missing the opportunity. God, he gave Rey the creeps.

Rey shook her head to clear it. _It happened again._ She was sure of it now. Twice she tried to escape and twice Kylo Ren found her, returned her to the orphanage.

But at least… at least he wasn’t as bad as the stories suggested. He hadn’t harmed her and if Mildrith told the truth, he even saved her from harm at the nuns’ hands. Or worse, Snoke’s.

“You’ll be sleeping in a locked room from now on. Until your lord husband comes to collect you. Then you’re his problem. Our only job is keeping you protected until such time. We won’t fail in this again.”

It would have been smart for Rey to feign contrition, to promise not to do anything rash anymore. But she was never much good at holding her tongue.

“You can’t keep me locked up at night!” she said, panic rising. Desperate, she added, “what would Lord Ren say if he knew you put his bride in some dungeon at night?”

Mildrith’s smile was thin. “It was his order.”

#

“Rey?” Finn called.

“Here!” she whispered from behind the door of her new cell. It wasn’t as bad as she thought. Rey had been placed in one of the nun’s former chambers. They simply barred the windows and locked the door. In some ways, it was nice, having her own space. Though she’d miss talking to Finn each night.

Rey pressed her ear against the wooden door, listening for her friend.

“Rey!” he gushed, from the other side. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she insisted, smiling. And she was, for the moment. The question of how to escape Kylo, of what to do when he came to take her, was a problem for the morning. 

“Rey… I wanted to tell you. I was listening, and, that’s not what Kylo said… about the beating. I mean, he did tell Sister Mildrith not to hurt you. But his exact words were, ‘don’t trouble yourself with whipping the girl. I’ll be returning soon. I’ll mete out her punishment.’”

Rey swallowed.

“That doesn’t sound good, Rey,” Finn added.

 _Obviously,_ Rey thought, wanting to roll her eyes. She didn’t, because, truth be told, a tingle ran up her spine. It wasn’t just what Finn told her, it was the memory that followed.

Another half-dream, only this time, she heard Kylo’s voice in her head.

Rey remembered drifting off to sleep, bumping on the horse, pressed to Kylo’s chest… and hearing his husky whisper against her ear.

_“Don’t worry. I won’t let the nuns touch you. I’m going to punish you for this incident myself. Although, given the choice, you may prefer to do penance kneeling at their feet over mine.”_

#

Rey only spent a fortnight in her bedroom-prison. 

She thought she’d have more time. She thought, when Kylo came to claim her, she’d have a journey of some sort. A trip lasting several days, during which time she might find plenty of opportunities to escape.

None of that came to pass.

One evening, Rey went to sleep. To her astonishment, when she awoke, she was no longer in her little cell.

The feeling was jarring, but she didn’t need to be told what happened.

_I’m in his keep. Lord Ren’s castle. The beast’s dreadful fortress where he commits vile, evil atrocities._

_He transported me like a shipment in the night,_ she thought, snarling with resentment. _How does he make me sleep? Hypnosis? Herbs? Sorcery?_

Sitting up, her mouth fell, taking in her new surroundings. Opulent, luxurious - yet sinister all the same.

How could a room, a place, have such a feeling of foreboding? Maybe her subconscious picked up details her mind had not yet fully worked out.

The tapestries along the stone walls depicted suggestive tableaus, if one looked closely enough. The four-poster bed had leather straps attached, half-tucked beneath the downy coverlet.

Sucking in a difficult breath, Rey noticed her own clothing had been changed to suit her surroundings.

Someone had laced her into a tight corset, the bones like a skeletal hand fisting around her torso. Indeed, the material was bone-colored, matching her usual attire.

The similarity ended there. Rey preferred breeches, and whatever covered her legs now most certainly could not be described as bearing any resemblance to stockings or anything she’d seen before. It bore the shape of a skirt, admittedly, but the material was so airy it hardly passed for a slip. To make matters worse, as Rey stood, she realized the front slit ran so high she revealed her entire right leg with each step.

_Entirely immodest._

Rey blushed, wondering who undressed and dressed her in the first place. _Servants,_ she hoped. _Let it have been servants._

Across the room, Rey spied a mirror and approached her reflection with perverse fascination.

Tall candelabras with dripping tapers flickered soft light, making Rey, the room, and everything in it appear more haunting. Her triple buns had been removed, leaving her hair flowing free, just past her shoulders.

Rey turned and reached for the bedroom door. To her surprise, it opened.

_I’m permitted to explore?_

She looked down.

Whoever dressed her provided no boots or even slippers. _So that I can’t run very far?_

Rey gathered her chestnut hair at the nape of her neck and tied it back into a makeshift bun. She lifted her chin.

 _I might not be able to escape the grounds,_ she thought. _But at least I’ll finally get some answers._

No one would ever tell Rey why Supreme Lord Kylo Ren wanted her… set aside. She wouldn’t for a moment believe the nonsense about being his bride.

Whatever he truly wanted… if he thought she’d lay down and accept it, Kylo Ren didn’t know a thing about Rey of Jakku.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should have mentioned my stories typically start from a place of shameless, swoony romance... and then get even *more* carried away (often literally, some dark lord or other is carrying away our blushing bride and I never tire of this trope!) Smut is forthcoming and its always kinky. 
> 
> I update sporadically because I write a lot of Petyr x Sansa, so please feel free to check it out if you like this vibe! I'm also VERY nervous with Reylo, since it's my first. And I know I'm taking some liberties with Snoke & Palpatine but I have a (half-baked) plan. 
> 
> **I'm debating aging Rey up as this is going to be smutty. Please let me know if anyone has any concerns with raising her to 17/18. Thanks!*


	4. Chapter 4

If Rey hadn’t seen the scale and proportion of the castle with her own eyes, she never would have believed it. Towering walls met soaring ceilings several stories in the air, forcing her to crane her neck just to take in their full height.

 _Like him,_ she thought bitterly. _And just as dark._

While the arched windows were numerous, little light was let into the castle and Rey noted it was night.

_Have I slept a full day to get here?_

In response, her stomach rumbled, telling her that more time passed than the span of one evening.

Quickly, Rey scampered through the labyrinth of vast halls, seeking an exit or… she wasn’t sure exactly what she was looking for. But she felt the need to escape the sense of being watched, and, no matter which direction she turned, it always seemed like eyes were upon her.

It also seemed the castle was designed without ready access to the grounds. Before Rey found an exit, she found a hall for dining.

One long table spread out before her, laden with more food than Rey had ever seen at once. Just looking at such a bounty made her mouth water. She blinked, as if it couldn’t be real.

Illuminating the room, tall candles scattered about the table and a roaring fire glowed in the hearth.

 _So much food._ And the variety! Dark fruits glistening with some kind of glaze, roasts dripping their juices onto silver platters, bowls of strange nuts and towers of little blood-red cakes covering the surface.

Rey ran to the table and grabbed a small cake, bringing it to her lips.

Mouth wide, she froze.

_Don’t be a fool._

Rey flung the cake across the table.

A chuckle made her jump and she whipped her head in the direction of the sound, but Rey couldn’t see anything in the shadows.

“It’s not poisoned,” said the voice.

_Lord Kylo._

Slowly, he emerged from the darkness, covered in black from the mask on his head to the hem of his cape, nearly sweeping the floor. He stalked nearer and though Rey’s heart began to speed, she refused to give him the satisfaction of letting him know he frightened her. She spotted a sharp knife on the table and tensed, ready to lunge for the weapon.

“You want to kill me.” the Supreme Lord said. It was not a question.

Rey snarled. “That happens when you’ve been kidnapped by a creature in a mask.”

Shocking Rey speechless, Kylo slowly lifted his hands to his head and, for the first time, removed the strange mask he wore.

Even more shocking was the face behind the mask. Mouth gaping, Rey stared.

To say Lord Kylo wasn’t what she expected was an understatement. And also, impossibly, somewhat untrue. There was something familiar about his face, or… _right,_ somehow.

The Supreme Lord was unfairly handsome. _That shouldn’t be,_ Rey thought, angrily. _He’s evil and his soul, twisted._

 _So why was his face so… mesmerizing?_

His dark eyes tempted her, like some enchanted pond calling for her to swim inside, to lose herself in their depths. His eyes weren’t empty; there seemed to dance a light at the bottom of those dark pools, entrancing her to reach for it. Seeing Lord Ren’s full lips brought a strange and unwelcome tingle to her own, as if she wanted to kiss them. And her fingers twitched, taking in his hair, loose and long, like it was made for her to run her hands through it, to grab onto it…

_No._

Rey blinked, shaking her head.

Of all the things Lord Kylo Ren could have said at that moment, nothing could have stunned her more than what he murmured.

“Don’t be afraid, I feel it too.”

It was like he read her mind. She’d dismissed it before -- perhaps he had seen her eyes dart to the knife on the table and made an educated guess as to her intent. But now… how could he have known what she herself could barely comprehend?

Swallowing, Rey demanded, “Why am I here?”

“You’re my wife. Where else would you be?”

That _word._ It made a fluttery feeling in Rey’s stomach.

“I am _not._ You could have… others.” _So many others,_ she didn’t want to admit, but who would refuse the Supreme Lord? Especially when he… wasn’t repulsive. “Why would you want to marry an orphan in the first place? And, and… if that were true, why would you force me to remain in that orphanage all these years? Is Finn still there? Is he okay?”

“So many questions. Sit. Eat. Then we can talk.”

“I’m not touching any of this food.”

He smirked and Rey hated that it gave her a fluttery feeling again.

Kylo removed his gloves, tossed them onto the table, and reached over to the cake Rey had thrown. It looked even smaller in his large hands, as he picked it up and took a bite.

Stepping closer, he lifted the cake to Rey’s mouth, but she backed away, shaking her head.

“Sit,” Kylo repeated and when she didn’t move he… he… _made her move somehow._

Carried by some spell, Rey’s body betrayed her, flinging itself onto the nearest wooden chair and pushing down into it.

Dumbstruck, Rey gaped again. She’d convinced herself that the strange magic in the forest and on horseback had been her imagination. She told herself fear had stiffened her arm.

But she was wide awake and sure now. The Supreme Lord possessed a dark sorcery.

Kylo stalked over to her and held the cake to her lips once more.

“Eat,” he commanded.

Rey didn’t open her mouth. She couldn’t move her arms to push him away. She couldn’t move her legs, to kick.

“Would you like to sit in this chair all night?”

Rey stared daggers at Kylo.

“I’ll make you a deal,” he said. “Eat, and I’ll answer your questions. You need food if you’re to train. You’re underfed.”

“That’s because you kept me in an orphanage!” Rey cried, indigent. “I could have left. I could have made my own way in the world. I’m not helpless!”

 _Although I am at the moment,_ she thought, with some irony. 

“I had to keep you… safe.”

It hit Rey that Kylo said something about… training?

“We’ll get to that later,” he replied, answering the question in her mind.

“Stop doing that,” Rey demanded. “Get out of my head.”

“Then eat.”

Kylo stared down at her and she held his gaze for a moment, jutting her chin.

Fuming, Rey finally opened her mouth and let Kylo slide the sugary little cake inside. She couldn’t help from fluttering her eyelids as the icing melted on her tongue.

 _God, it tasted so good._ Her stomach rumbled again. She was a goner. If she died from poison, it would be worth it for a meal like this.

“Good girl,” Kylo said, and Rey wished she hadn’t swallowed just so she could spit the cake back at him for that.

“If I release you, may we dine like civilized people?”

Rey barked a laugh. Supreme Lord Kylo Ren, the beast, the scourge upon the land, talking to her about being civilized?

“One of us dines at a table,” he said. “The other scavengers for food in the woods.”

 _That’s because there was never enough to eat at the orphanage,_ Rey thought angrily. But she replied, “Fine. I will eat. You will answer my questions.”

She was in no position to make demands but she couldn’t help it.

Rey felt the strange hold release, and she meant to ask things she’d been wondering for _years,_ but her stomach took over and she tore a hunk of meat from the roast, feasting greedily, barely stopping to wipe the juices dripping down her chin.

Kylo watched her with interest, like a pet, but she ignored him at she ate, washing down her food with what she believed to be a goblet of juice but turned out to contain wine.

 _I have to eat to keep my strength,_ she reasoned. But she’d been so distracted throughout, she hadn’t even noticed if Kylo had anything. She paused and looked at him now to see he still watched her.

Replacing her goblet on the table, a strange silence fell.

Remembering her questions, Rey grit out, “Why did you… marry me by proxy? Why were we betrothed in the first place? We’d never even met! You’re not my… husband. You can’t really want me as your wife. You can find a better match.”

“Oh, but I can’t.”

“Why?”

Kylo leaned back in his seat. God, he dwarfed even that tall chair. He was a monster, a beast. Yet… his size made that fluttery feeling run through Rey’s chest.

“You need a teacher.”

Rey frowned. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

Something strange happened in that moment and Rey felt in her mind… or saw somehow on Kylo’s face… _He doesn’t know the answer._

_But that couldn’t be._

She must have imagined it.

Yet Kylo’s anger flared -- she definitely saw that in his face before he spoke.

“You’re already going to be punished for running away. Don’t make it worse for yourself.”

“You can’t punish me.”

“You’re my wife. I can do whatever I want with you.”

Rey stammered, blushing.

“I can carry you up to my bedroom tonight,” Kylo said, smoothly. “I can take you right now on this table if I like. I can take whatever I want. You know this.” 

Rage boiled inside Rey because she hated to admit it, but it was true. She wasn’t going to escape the castle and even if she did, the law was on Lord Kylo’s side. It was _ridiculous._ She hadn’t even been there, hadn’t said the vows, yet she belonged to him, until the day she died.

Unless she killed him first.

“So much fury,” Kylo mused, in a sing-song voice. “I imagine that Jakku taught you to believe it’s righteous anger. Right and wrong, good and evil. It’s just a matter of perspective, little one.”

“Stop calling me that,” Rey spat.

“Would you prefer little wife?”

He said it just to taunt her. _My name is Rey,_ she wanted to insist. But she didn’t like her name on his tongue either. It felt too… personal.

“Call me whatever you like,” she growled. “I don’t care. It’s just words. They don’t matter.”

“I’m glad to hear you won’t fight me on this.” Kylo cocked his head. “I’d like you to fight me in other ways, though.”

Rey frowned, confused. Was that a trick?

“I told you. You need a teacher. You need to train. I’m prepared to let you have your days to yourself Rey… mostly. I want you to train with my knights.”

“W – why?” Rey asked, disbelieving.

“So that _our_ fights are fair.”

The hair on Rey’s arms stood on end. _Horsehit._ Kylo didn’t play fair.

“What do you mean?”

“In the evenings _we_ will fight.”

“Why?”

“So that you learn.”

“I don’t understand,” Rey said. And she didn’t. Was she brought here to be his wife or to serve in his army?

“Why _me?”_ she demanded.

Kylo Ren didn’t answer.

“I’m not fighting you,” she said. “You don’t fight fair. You’ll use your sorcery to win.”

“We’ll fight,” Kylo insisted. “You can use your quarterstaff. I’ll use a staff as well. Then we’ll progress to swords. And when you’re ready, we’ll progress to… other forms of combat.”

Rey narrowed her eyes. There had to be a dark trick in there somewhere. Kylo was a lot bigger, stronger, and older than she was. But… with a staff she had considerable skill. She might have a chance.

“I’ll make you a deal, Rey of Jakku. I won’t carry you upstairs – this night, or any other - without a fair fight. In the evenings we’ll spar.” He locked his large, dark eyes on her and Rey thought she read something needy, something hungry in them. “If I win, I get to decide what I’ll do to your body after. If you win, you get to decide what to do to mine.”

Rey snorted. “I don’t want to do anything with yours.”

“Then if you win, you can decide to retreat to your room, alone for the evening.”

She shot to her feet. The rashness in Rey spoke for her.

“Where’s my staff?” she challenged. 

Kylo flexed his fingers and it floated to his hand, like magic.

Trying her best to conceal her astonishment, Rey snarled, “I thought you said no tricks.”

“A slip,” Kylo shrugged. “I won’t use any _dark sorcery_ while we fight.” He smiled at the term he plucked from her mind.

“How can I believe you?”

“What choice do you have?”

Clenching her jaw and squaring her shoulders, Rey snatched the staff from his hands.

“I can’t fight in this… this… corset,” she said, waving her hands to indicate not only the tight bodice, but what passed for a skirt.

“Then feel free to take it off,” Kylo said, with a wave of his hand in return. 

Rey huffed and turned away. She walked to one side of the room where they’d have more space to fight. Taking a wide stance, tensing, she set her face with determined ferocity.

Rey ignored the second wave of astonishment as Kylo flexed his fingers and another, longer staff flew across the room and into his waiting hands. He stalked over to where she stood, keeping several feet between them. Hunching slightly, he mimicked her stance, and for several heartbeats they stared at one another.

Rey couldn’t say who attacked first, only that somehow, simultaneously, they both moved, racing at one another and swinging, lunging and ducking in a blur…

…that was over almost as quickly as it began, to Rey’s utter horror.

 _It wasn’t fair._ He had so much more experience than she did.

The Supreme Lord knocked Rey off her feet and before she could push herself up, Kylo’s large body was on top of hers – unnecessarily – as he could have pinned her with his staff.

Rey fought for air – he’d knocked the wind out of her. Not only had she never before been swept onto her backside so quickly, she’d never been beaten so roughly. It wasn’t that Finn and the farmer’s son tip-toed around their sparring, it was that they _couldn’t._

Not to mention, she’d never smacked against such hard stone when they practiced in the fields.

Rey couldn’t help the silly, “ow,” that escaped her mouth.

“I win,” Kylo gloated in a sultry voice, face inches from hers.

Rey’s stomach tied in knots and her heart started to pick up even more speed. _What did he want from her?_

“There’s more to teach than combat alone,” Lord Kylo said, voice low.

 _Teach?_ Rey wondered. _I didn’t learn anything from that… disgrace._

“Perhaps you’ll tend to your lessons in the morning then. The knights will be waiting. Now,” Kylo said, cocking a smirk. “Bend over the table, little one.”

Rey’s blood froze.

“I – I can’t.”

“We had a deal. You’ll do as I say or I’ll do worse.”

Rey wobbled to her feet, her legs reluctant to do her bidding. _His bidding._

“Bend over the table.”

Rey squeezed her eyes shut, panic rising.

 _“I can’t,”_ she repeated.

“Breathe, Rey,” Kylo whispered, suddenly standing beside her, voice deep and sultry again. “Just breathe.”

 _Go away,_ Rey thought. But there was something comforting about his proximity, reminding Rey of their time on his horse.

“Breathe,” he commanded again.

Rey didn’t open her eyes, but she tried to breathe. Kylo’s arms were around her, ushering her to the table and she didn’t want to go but she didn’t want something worse to happen than… whatever he was planning.

 _I can’t do this,_ she thought. _It’s all happening too fast._

Except, was it? According to the law, she’d been Lord Ren’s wife for years.

“Please,” Rey stalled.

“Shh…”

A firm hand on her back helped guide her torso over the table.

“I can be slow, Rey. But if you ever defy me, you’ll have broken our deal first, and I will return the rash behavior in kind. You don’t want me to be hasty with this part of your… training, do you?”

Rey shook her head. She felt Kylo pulling up the flimsy excuse for a skirt.

“No…” she plead, but he hushed her again.

Rey tried to remain still, but when Kylo’s hands found her undergarments and yanked them off her in one pull, she squealed and tried to bolt.

Kylo’s hand pushed her back into position.

“This is your last warning. Stay down, or I’ll have to hold you in place. If I do, I won’t just punish you with my hand. I’ll use a leather strap.”

Rey thought she’d die of humiliation. Punish her? Strap? She couldn’t have heard him right. Did he intend to…

Her question was answered by the hard _smack_ to her bare bottom. The shame Rey felt at having Kylo see her naked was quickly replaced by fear.

 _And pain,_ as he smacked her soundly again. And again.

“This is how I’m going to instruct you from now on. Any disobedience will be met with punishment.”

Kylo continued to spank the fullness of her cheeks as he lectured.

“Since this is your first time, I’ll go easy.”

 _This is easy?_ Rey thought, fighting to catch her breath, squirming to escape the blows.

God, his hands were so _big_ and he hit so _hard._

“You will never embarrass me by running away again. If you do, I can promise you won’t be able to sit down for days.”

Kylo spanked without breaks and soon Rey was whimpering softly. Her bottom felt like it was on fire. Sometimes, Kylo placed a particularly hard spank to her thighs and Rey yelped. It seemed to go on and on. She couldn’t help but kick her legs and wave her hips, trying to escape the unending pain of Kylo’s strong hands.

_Though, if this was just his hands, what would a leather strap feel like?_

“Please,” Rey begged. “I can’t take anymore. Please stop.”

Kylo ignored her pleas.

“That’s the interesting thing about us Rey. I can tell exactly how much you can take. I can push you… just… beyond… that point. Until you break for me.”

Us? Rey didn’t understand what Kylo meant. She could barely understand anything anymore. Tears pricked her eyes, but she wouldn’t cry for him, she _wouldn’t._

“P - Please, Kylo,” Rey begged, unaware that it was the first time she used his name, other than when she identified him on the horse. She was even less aware that she drifted into a more pliable state, grasping at anything to make him stop, she cried, “Please, Lord Ren.”

“Again,” Kylo said, but Rey didn’t know what he meant.

“Who am I?”

“K – Lord Ren,” Rey said, understanding.

“That’s right,” Kylo praised, but he smacked her again anyway and Rey groaned in pain. “And what I am?”

After another confused moment, Rey said, “M – my lord. My husband?”

She didn’t mean for it to come out as a question. In such a vulnerable position she certainly didn’t want to anger him. But it just seemed so _unbelievable,_ she couldn’t help it. Frightened she’d provoked him, Rey began to babble.

“My lord, my lord, my husband! _Please,_ sir, please, my lord.”

She got the funny feeling Kylo was… not quite laughing at her, but _amused._

He stopped spanking her for the moment and Rey sighed in relief, only to gasp as Kylo’s hand instead began to caress her thighs, the curve of her ass… even dipping slightly in between the cleft of her cheeks.

Rey had thought she couldn’t get any more humiliated, but she was wrong. Why on _Earth_ was she here in this castle in the first place? What was the Supreme Lord doing with his hands between her legs?

_Oh god… did he intend to… bed her? Now? But he said he’d start slow…_

Kylo’s voice broke her thoughts.

“I don’t need sorcery to see you’re aroused, Rey of Jakku. I can smell it.”

 _What?_ Rey wished she could die right then and there.

“Would you like me to help you?”

_Help her? No. How?_

“You need release. I can give it to you. I alone can give it to you. Like no other can.”

_Release?_

“Would you like that, little one?”

“No,” Rey declared, finding her voice again, though it was a cracked whisper. She wasn’t even sure what he meant. Only, if _he_ wanted it, _she_ did not.

Kylo’s hand moved more insistently from the curve of her bottom to the region between her legs and Rey jumped, trying to lift her torso from the table. Kylo must have known, must have been prepared, because his hand was on her back, holding her down.

Unbelievably, his fingers _entered_ her where no one’s fingers had ever been before. Easily. Rey felt her wetness provide smooth access. To her horror, it felt good, and that made her try to squirm away even harder, even as she whimpered in pleasure. Her struggles only earned her a firmer push of Kylo’s hand on her back.

“Please… stop…” Rey begged, but it drifted off in a moan of pleasure.

Kylo worked a second finger inside her and Rey’s body moved without her permission, bucking back on the pressure. The hand holding her down moved, but Kylo replaced it with his dark magic, and Rey couldn’t budge from the table.

Using his other hand, Kylo touched something on Rey that had never been touched so directly. Waves of bliss shot through her mind as Lord Ren circled his finger around a spot of nerves just above Rey’s opening. At the same time, he thrust his fingers inside her, deep and hard.

The pleasure was too much to take, it built up inside Rey demanding to be felt, to be experienced and released, just as Kylo dictated.

Mortified, Rey rocked her hips, rubbing against Kylo’s hand, humping it like an animal.

Suddenly, she couldn’t take it anymore. Her legs stiffened, her hips jerked and her mind blanked with unbelievable pleasure as _something_ overtook her. Her little moans built into one long cry at the height of it, and that was the last thing she remembered before everything went white.

When consciousness returned, Rey was awestruck.

_What had happened?_

It was almost like when men spent their pleasure, but women didn’t do that. _Did they?_

Rey’s body was still shaking, her insides still seizing upon Kylo’s fingers as he leaned down. His husky whisper tickled her ear.

“That’s my good girl.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things get pretty smutty here. 
> 
> Also, there's a very brief implication (nothing explicit) of abuse in a religious setting. It's just a line, but I do want to mention it in case it's triggering to anyone and also because it might affect later events.
> 
> Lastly, I let the force work in a slightly more fantasy-medieval manner, to match the story.

Sore and sweaty, Rey collapsed in her elegant bed for a late afternoon nap. She fought harder than ever, partially because the Knights of Ren attacked relentlessly – something Rey suspected Kylo ordered – and partially because she pushed herself.

The faster she improved, the faster she could command Kylo to leave her alone.

It also provided a _very_ welcome distraction to thinking about what the Supreme Lord did to her the night before. What else he might do, later that night.

If Rey stopped, if she let the memory creep into her mind, she felt slightly woozy. And sometimes… she felt an amused intrusion. But she couldn’t sort out if it was her own self-conscious worry or if Lord Kylo invaded her mind from afar. Rey hadn’t seen him stalking around the castle the entire day; she couldn’t say what he’d been up to or if he even remained within.

Surprisingly, the Supreme Lord… her… husband… (a _temporary_ condition, Rey thought) gave her a measure of space. She’d been allowed to sleep in her own chambers.

Although before drifting off, Rey spotted the leather straps tied to the four corners of her bed. She made valiant attempt to ignore them. As well as the accompanying pounding of her heart.

Instead, Rey focused on the soft embrace of the luxurious bedding and napped until an hour before her required nightly supper with Kylo.

During her daytime sparring, he allowed Rey to wear the style of her old clothing: breeches and a sturdy tunic better suited to men than women. But he required she bathe and change before their shared meal that evening, and each thereafter. To her annoyance, Lord Kylo even sent a servant to bathe and help her dress. Rey smacked away the maid’s helping hands repeatedly, until the quiet girl finally spoke.

 _“Please, m’lady._ If I don’t see to it that you’re properly dressed, he’ll be… angry with me…”

Rey huffed and relented at the maid’s watery eyes, taking pity on the girl. There was certainly enough pity to go around in Kylo’s keep.

“He’s a monster,” Rey swore, turning around to begrudgingly allow the lacing of another corset ill-suited to sparring.

“Don’t – don’t talk like that,” the serving girl whispered. “Don’t talk at all. I’m not supposed to talk to you.”

 _So much for asking her name,_ Rey thought. _Or for her help to escape. Which was likely Kylo’s intention._

Rey grunted as her maid pulled the laces tighter than a corset was meant to be worn.

 _He’s disadvantaging me for fighting,_ Rey thought. _And pushing my breasts up into an obscene display. Two birds, one stone._

Her clothing that evening was a darker shade of cream. More tan, than the bone-colored ensemble the evening prior. Unlike Rey’s last corset, the one she currently wore had delicate embellishments woven around the bodice and the silky skirt trailed a bit on the floor behind her as she walked.

 _I’ll tie it up when we fight,_ she reasoned.

Rey congratulated herself on her remarkable patience throughout her maid’s attentions, but when the hapless girl tried to dab scented oil on the tops of Rey’s breasts, she rolled her eyes and stalked out of the room before her maid could finish.

With each step down the grand, stone staircase, Rey found herself losing the battle in the fight to hold onto anger over fear. The inevitability of her feet drawing her closer to the dining hall brought in tandem the inescapability of Kylo… touching her. In whatever way he chose.

Rey wasn’t so foolish as to believe one day of training would win her a night of freedom. But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t hold onto hope. There was always hope.

#

 _My god,_ Rey thought, unwilling.

Lord Ren had removed his cloak and stood beside the fire; his tall, muscular frame highlighted by the flames. He wore his usual black, but it was the first time Rey had seen him without the dark cape. In some ways, the sharp picture he presented was even more intimidating. Lord Kylo’s broad shoulders, solid chest, strong arms -- all of it prominently displayed, a visible threat. Rey’s eyes didn’t know where to land, soon they darted down to his impossibly long and powerful legs, then up to his face.

She blinked, confused. Kylo’s dark eyes studied her, mysteriously, but without malice. Rey caught that surprising earnestness behind them again and it didn’t fit the monstrous picture the rest of his body -- indeed, his entire reputation -- conveyed.

The Supreme Lord stared silently back at Rey, giving her the feeling they were locked in a sort of battle, but she couldn’t say what kind. The vast dining hall remained silent, but for the crackling of the fire in the large hearth behind Kylo. For a moment, a feeling of _indecisiveness_ permeated the air or stroked that hidden sense in Rey, but it quickly passed.

“Sit,” Kylo commanded, like the night before. “Eat.”

#

Rey had no appetite. How could she be expected to fight on a full stomach? How could she be expected to taste one morsel of food, knowing what was to come?

Or really, _not_ knowing. Because Rey couldn’t guess what Kylo planned.

The evil bastard _knew_ how nervous he made her. He made no attempt to hide his smirk as she squirmed in her seat. Curiously, he said not a word about what had happened when he bent Rey over the table. And she certainly refused to give him the satisfaction of commenting on it or even acknowledging how he’d punished and stroked her so intimately. Even if she wanted to, Rey couldn’t sort through her own feelings, she surely didn’t know what to say to him.

Far too quickly, dinner wound down, and without Rey gaining any useful information. She’d repeated all the same questions and demands -- _Do you swear Finn is safe? Why am I here? Why train me?_ But Kylo was even less charitable than before in sharing any insights.

Finally, he laid down his empty cup of wine.

“Shall we?” Lord Ren asked, voice deep, hungry.

_No._

Rey gulped. But she lifted her chin.

“I’ll fetch my own staff, thank you,” she said, shooting to her feet and retrieving it from the corner, without the use of Kylo’s dark sorcery.

Her stubbornness didn’t have the effect she intended. Kylo chucked, trailing behind her to retrieve his own weapon in the normal, non-magical manner. He joined her at the far end of the room as Rey loosely tied her skirts in a knot just above her knees.

Heads downward, gazing up with flint in their eyes, Rey and Kylo faced one another. For a few heated seconds they stood, tensed, muscles coiling. Then Rey lunged, shouting and attacking Kylo with an upward swing of her staff she hoped would surprise or unbalance him… but he was ready with a block to deflect her hit.

No… not only did he _deflect_ it, he _re-directed_ her energy, using her own strength against her as he channeled the blow forward, causing Rey to stumble to her knees instead.

In the moment Kylo could have attacked from the back, he didn’t, allowing Rey time to regain her footing.

She spun, snarling, angrier than ever.

_Was he assessing her?_

He shrugged, the bastard actually shrugged, _smug._

Rey charged Kylo like wild animal. Her attack was sloppy, but she made up for it in sheer ferocity and _finally_ saw Kylo have to work to fend her off. She advanced, still sensing Kylo held back at times… but other times… Rey gathered a power within her that surprised them both, that forced Kylo to concentrate and double his efforts.

Rey struggled to breathe as sweat dripped down the corset. When she spun or raised her arms, her small breasts threatened to spill right out the top -- though if Kylo’s plan had been to hinder her, it backfired, as he failed to pay attention to her hits in those moments.

As they fought, Rey earned bruises on her hands, arms, legs. But this time, she struck Kylo with the end of her staff several times in return. She almost thought she’d knock him off his feet but he stormed forward with renewed energy, pushing her back with the sheer power in his blows.

When Kylo swept Rey onto her back, she didn’t stop fighting.

She couldn’t, she was too worked up.

Growling, feral, Rey tumbled with Kylo, swinging her arms and kicking her legs in the lost cause of throwing him off her. A palpable energy coursed through the air, as if both their bodies created it, sending it outward and wrapping the other up inside.

Lord Kylo’s hands tore at Rey’s skirt, obliterating it. She shrieked as her undergarments came off next. She clawed at Kylo, but he grabbed her wrists.

 _“Down,”_ he said, both with his words and his mind; forcing the action with his hands as he pushed Rey onto her back with the triple attack.

That strange, dark sorcery held her in place as, to Rey’s horror, the Supreme Lord spread her legs wide open, bending them at the knees. The first wave of shame washed over her to feel her bare sex revealed for Kylo’s eyes -- but a second wave quickly followed when Kylo, unthinkably, _brought his head to her cunt and licked it._

“Stop!” Rey shouted, panicked. But her body screamed the exact opposite command and that’s the one Kylo regarded.

He lowered his mouth to her exposed cunt and gave it another long, slow lick, making Rey shudder. It was more than she could handle. Mortified, tears pooled from the horridly intimate act with a horrible beast-of-a-man… but also… from the delirious pleasure it caused.

Rey’s body divided in two. Kylo held her chest to the floor with his evil sorcery, keeping her from bolting upright and running away. But he released his hold on her arms. Instead of beating Kylo’s head senseless, Rey’s hands found his dark hair, fisting it and holding his mouth between her legs. Somewhere in her mind she reasoned that there was nothing else she could do. It was the last thing she reasoned before she lost the ability to think.

Kylo buried his entire mouth in her folds, then he raised his aim and circled that strange bundle of nerves with his tongue – the one he’d touched the night before that made her see stars. He continued the exquisite torture and then inserted his fingers in Rey, probing her deeply while sucking on the special spot at the same time.

Against her will Rey arched and moaned, feeling the rise of that mind-blowing pleasure again, like she was soaring higher and higher, poised to free-fall into the clouds.

Abruptly, Kylo stopped the attentions of his tongue. But not his fingers.

“I’ve been patient and generous, Rey. You were so young, so tiny. You still are. I could have taken you back in the orphanage, I could have bed you the moment you woke up here. I’ve been very generous.”

Rey barely heard Lord Ren. The walls of her cunt squeezed upon the fingers driving inside it, aching for more. _Why wouldn’t he give her more?_ She neared the precipice; she could feel it.

Kylo pushed his fingers deeper. He curled and moved them slightly side-to-side, stroking a strange spot within Rey that caused her whimper and writhe.

“The least you can do is recognize that you’re my wife.”

 _What was he saying? Why did he keep talking and not just_ … Rey blushed to think it… _put his mouth back on her?_

Kylo pulled back and drove his fingers hard into Rey, making her gasp.

_“Say it.”_

“W- what?” Rey breathed.

“Say you’re my wife.”

Oh.

_Oh._

_Goddammit._ He withheld that… divine pleasure… until she said it.

For a moment, Rey teetered, warring with her pride, and worse. The idea that she could be married to someone as malevolent as Kylo Ren.

He leaned down and flicked her favorite spot with one teasing lick of his tongue.

“I’m your wife,” Rey cried. _Though I don’t understand why._

Kylo instantly resumed his attentions, shaming Rey with her desperate gratitude.

It only took a few seconds before she jerked into Kylo’s mouth, clutching his head and moaning for all the castle to hear.

#

The outfit required of Rey the next evening was a strange silvery-beige. She couldn’t say why it unnerved her -- the mutable, iridescent color enchanted and the material likely cost more than the farmer’s boy made in a year, no matter how bountiful the crop. But something about it made her uneasy.

She was too sore to protest when her maid scrubbed her skin and laced her into the ensemble. Days of unrelenting sparring took their toll on her aching muscles. Rey didn’t want to fight Kylo, that night especially. But without any choice in her role, she trudged down the grand, stone steps once more.

Her breath caught when she saw him.

Kylo wasn’t wearing any tunic or surcoat, as he usually wore beneath his cape. Though the Supreme Lord wore his customary black boots and pants, he now wore only a thin shirt over his powerful chest, distractingly clinging to his muscles. Everything about him was so long, so strong, so _male._ Handsome and dashing and dark.

Kylo chuckled. “I’m glad I please you, little wife.”

Rey’s cheeks flamed. “Get out of my head!” she snarled.

For the first time, Rey felt a pull, felt the intrusion recede. She was too awed by it to pay attention to Kylo’s continued, self-satisfied smirking as he sat.

Rey pushed her skirts aside and sat stiffy across from him.

“Where do you go when I’m training?” she demanded, slamming her hands on the table. “Out commanding your army? Ordering the seizure of more territories in the name of King Palpatine?”

Kylo cocked his head at her.

“Does that disturb you?”

Taken aback, Rey stuttered, “I- I… he’s the king. It’s his divine right.”

Kylo waved his hand, dismissively. “Repeating what the orphanage instructed.”

Rey frowned but ignored the slight. “Where is Finn? Is he still there?”

“Where else would he be?”

Rey licked her lips, unsure whether to believe the Supreme Lord.

“How is it that you found me whenever I ran away?” she asked, voice low, tentative.

“I can sense you. I can find you.” Kylo paused and then said, “You can sense me too, if you try. You can find me.”

“I would never want to find you,” Rey scoffed. “Except to go where you are not. Except to hide.”

“You can’t hide from me, little one.”

Extremely uncomfortable with the idea and lacking a response, Rey sipped her wine, buying time. Kylo tore a juicy leg from nearest roasted bird.

“Why even bother… sensing me… in the first place?” she asked, laying down her cup. “I don’t understand. Why were we betrothed?”

Lord Ren held her eyes. “I felt you, as a child. I came to see you. I watched you scavenge, fight. I watched as you grew, as you opened your eyes. I watched as you closed them as well.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Father Snoke,” Kylo said, without hesitation.

“What about him?”

“You tell me.”

“I don’t know what you mean. He gives me the creeps.”

“And that upsets you. And you close your mind.”

“What are you talking about? Stop telling me what I do and do not do.” Rey paused, then asked, “Close my mind to what?”

“To his,” Kylo said, leaning forward. “To the evil within. It’s rising, Rey. He may have had a disturbance before, but it’s grown vile of late. People might get hurt. Innocents. Children.”

“Stop it, stop it!” Rey ordered, shaking her head. “You’re a monster.”

Kylo leaned back. “I’m not the monster.”

 _It’s not true,_ Rey thought.

“Then why did you force me to remain in Jakku all those years?” Rey asked, but she didn’t wait for a response. She grit her teeth and reached into Kylo’s mind. Immediately, she felt it.

 _He_ wanted _her to see a greater evil, to feel it. He purposely exposed her…_

_…to… to… tempt her… to turn her to his side._

But as twisted as that answer might be, it came too easily.

Rey felt Kylo obscured something else.

_What could possibly be worse than that sick motivation?_

Rey’s head jerked to the side with the force of Kylo pushing her out of his thoughts, almost as if she’d been slapped.

“You’re stalling,” he drawled. “Time to fight, little one.”

#

Fear gripped her heart when Rey lost.

“I win,” Lord Kylo declared, in his teasing, sing-song voice. The boastful, gloating one he used each time.

_Kylo was going to bed her now. What else was left to do?_

He lifted his considerable weight off her small body and crossed over to their table.

 _Not even in a proper bed?_ Rey thought, fighting the rising panic. 

Kylo sat in the high-backed chair, facing Rey.

“Come here,” he commanded.

The moment Rey considered bolting, Kylo’s eyes darkened.

“Disobey me and I’ll have to punish you, as I did before. Only it will be harder this time.”

Rey squeaked and hated herself for it.

Hating Kylo as well, she did as he bid, walking slowly to stand in front of him.

“Kneel,” he commanded.

Confused, Rey slowly sank to her knees but kept her back straight, her jaw clenched.

Kylo raised himself off the chair, just enough to unlace his breeches and pull them down.

Rey quickly averted her eyes, astonished.

“No, no, little wife. Don’t look away.”

Swallowing, she turned her head back to see Kylo’s… _male appendage._ Eyes round, she gaped. Rey had only ever seen male bits in babies before, never anything like… _that._

Were they _supposed_ to be that… big and thick? What… how did it fit in a girl?

Rey’s heart thud rapidly. Was Kylo going to put all that inside her tonight? Did it work that way, or maybe… maybe just some of it went in? Half? Certainly not the whole thing.

Rey didn’t need dark sorcery to feel the smugness rolling off Kylo as he watched her. His smarmy attitude raised an annoyance in Rey, she met it with fury, grinding her teeth.

“I’ll make you a deal,” Kylo intoned.

_Another deal?_

“I want you to put your lips on me, Rey. As I put mine on you, last night. I want you to take my cock in your sweet mouth and suck. Until I come. You know what that is, don’t you, Rey? I think you know, even though you’ve been avoiding admission.”

Kylo’s words did _nothing_ to still the pounding of Rey’s heart. He wasn’t going to stick his cock inside her down below, but he wanted her to put it in her mouth instead?

 _I will not,_ Rey thought.

And then, impossibly, it got worse.

“If you are a good girl and suck me until I’m satisfied, I won’t need to put my cock anywhere else tonight. But if you are a bad girl, Rey. I’m afraid I’ll have to fuck you… and this isn’t the place I want our first coupling to occur. I’ll be forced to turn you over and fuck that cute little arse of yours, Rey.”

Rey nearly choked. She couldn’t have heard correctly. _Such filth._ Only the Supreme Lord could entertain such a repulsive act, only a beast could conceive such horrid sin.

“It’s in your best interest to obey me, Rey. I can assure you, when I fuck your backside Rey, it’s going to hurt no matter how long we wait. But, with time, we can prepare you, can lessen the pain. If I sodomize you this evening… we might need to cancel your training tomorrow.”

“You’re the devil,” Rey spat, face hot.

Kylo reached out and stroked Rey’s cheek. She flinched but didn’t back away.

“Put your mouth on me, angel.”

Defeated, Rey waited a moment to gather her courage and take a few steadying breaths.

_Do it quickly and get it over with._

Closing her eyes, she leaned down and pressed her lips to the strange, fleshy tip of Kylo’s erection, bemused that his sigh of pleasure stoked a strange satisfaction in her.

“Open wider. Take my length down your throat.”

Though Rey groaned at the command, a tingling began, low in her belly. She stretched her mouth and bobbed her head down, taking him inside, inch by inch.

“That’s right, little one… now up and down…”

Rey slid Kylo’s cock over her tongue, in and out of her mouth as he instructed. She could accommodate the girth but couldn’t fit his full length down her throat without gagging.

Kylo didn’t seem to mind. Judging from the deep moans he made, he felt an ecstasy similar to the one she’d experienced before. His hips jerked, though Rey could tell he tried to restrain himself, to not choke her. It was almost considerate and contrasted sharply with his next words.

“Swallow every drop, Rey,” he panted. “Swallow all of me or you’ll be punished severely.”

She wasn’t sure what he meant when suddenly, hot semen shot into Rey’s mouth, stunning her. Rey swallowed what she could but the salty, unfamiliar taste made her gag a little and some of it dribbled onto the floor below.

Rey wiped her mouth, agape with a perverse fascination - before she realized what she’d done.

Panicking, she glanced up at Kylo, ready to throw herself on his mercy. But she was surprised to find him wearing a bemused and disarming half-smile.

“It will take some getting used to,” he said lightly, surprising her. “Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to improve. Soon you’ll even learn to relax your throat, to take all of me as I penetrate your mouth at my leisure.”

Though his words were harsh and matter-of-fact, Kylo’s tone was not. He held out his hand, an offer to help her stand.

Rey blinked, confused. The she quickly backed away, more frightened by this casual, intimate moment than if he’d been furious with her. He was almost… Rey couldn’t find the right word. Friendly? Gracious? 

She didn’t like it. She hated Kylo. She _wanted_ to hate him.

Scurrying backwards, Rey determined to put space between them, and as she physically acted, she felt Kylo respond in kind, with his mind. A shift, as if he erected mental barriers.

As soon as she felt them, the petulant child in Rey wanted to breech them.

Rey stood, keeping her distance from Kylo.

“Why did you force me to stay in the orphanage all those years?” She ground out the demand through clenched teeth, snarling. “If you were coming for me anyway, why wait?”

Breathing heavy, she pushed her mind into Kylo’s, overtaking his defenses. Rey couldn’t even say how she did it. Kylo shot to his feet, glaring at her, trying to force her out.

 _Is this the other form of combat Kylo spoke of?_ she wondered. _Mind magic?_

Ignoring the tingling feeling coursing through her veins at touching Kylo’s thoughts, she dove straight for the information she wanted.

Rey mentally recoiled, stunned, but she didn’t fully release her hold.

“You don’t understand…” she whispered. “You still don’t know why I have this power like you do…”

Rey’s lips curled into a self-satisfied smile. “…You wanted to make sure your own power was stronger than mine before you brought me to you.”

Rey tried pushing forward again and blinked, mouth parted.

“You’re afraid… afraid that I could match you before you… turned me.”

Kylo nearly stumbled backward in disbelief. He shook his head and stared darkly at Rey. Quickly, he charged forward, arm raised, hand nearly touching her face.

Not only did he knock Rey out of his head, he put something into her own.

Images flashed through Rey’s mind, almost too fast to capture the picture - but the utterly unbearable feeling of each remained. Erotic scenes laced with horrible, unspeakable depravities. As quickly as one came it was gone. Rey couldn’t hold onto any memory, though the emotion of each lashed at her core as relentlessly as the tail of a whip.

She felt sick. It wasn’t butterflies flitting about her stomach, it was if bat-like creatures released giant, leathery wings, flapping and tearing her up from within. Simultaneously, an erotic pleasure too great to endure nearly made her swoon. As if Klyo squeezed her that special nub between his fingers and coaxed an intense, white-flash orgasm that reverberated around every secret corner of her mind and raced down to her toes. It pushed her to her knees as she fought the urge to faint. Rey moaned and her body spasmed with the pain-pleasure.

When it passed, Rey lay on the stone floor, limp but for her slight shaking, eyes closed.

“W – what was that?” she whispered. “What did you do to me? You forced horrors into my mind.”

Kylo gave a pitiless laugh, tossing his hair back with impudence.

“I didn’t force anything in your head. Those are your own thoughts Rey. I simply… quarried the desires. I brought them to the surface so you could see.”

“T – that’s not true!”

Kylo kneeled next to Rey and shoved her undergarments aside. His large hand cupped her mound – he didn’t even enter her. When he lifted his hand, it was soaked. As if he’d dipped it in water, but it bore the sticky evidence of another liquid.

“You came all over yourself Rey.” Kylo held his hand high, forcing her to see.

Blinking, Rey realized she could feel it on her own legs. As drenched as if she hadn’t made it to the chamberpot in time, yet even more embarrassing.

Still, she groaned, “It’s not true!”

“A string of orgasms from your own dark fantasies.” Kylo licked the embarrassing proof from one finger. He pressed his hand to Rey’s mouth, but she jerked her head to the side, refusing to acknowledge the lie. She panted, still coming down from… whatever just happened.

Kylo wiped his hand against her clamped lips, coating them with stickiness Rey immediately wiped it off with the back of her own hand, frowning in disgust.

“Show me the appropriate gratitude that I’ve allowed you to progress slowly in your training, that we haven’t explored all that darkness of yours at once. Thank me for the kindness, little wife.”

“T – thank you, sir,” Rey whispered, too limp to fight, too scared to suffer the unbearable torture-rapture again.

“Those were just momentary images, Rey. Enter my mind again without permission and I’ll let you suffer them all night. Or I’ll bring some of those pictures into reality.”

Kylo rocked back on his heels, still hovering over her.

“The best part is it will all be of your own making. Your own mind working against you.”

He stood, towering over her now.

 _This can’t be true,_ Rey thought _. I hate you._

“But if that’s not enough to make you behave, we can add my imaginings to the punishment. Would you like that, Rey? For me to put my darkest fantasies in your mind?”

“No,” Rey pled. She couldn’t take that. She could barely handle her own subconscious, if what Kylo said was true. Her body would break.

“Then don’t disobey me ever again.”

“I won’t,” Rey swore, dragging herself into a sitting position. “I won’t.”

 _Because there will be nothing defiant about it,_ she thought, trying to keep her mind closed to his probing. _I will play entirely within the rules._

 _But he next time we fight,_ she vowed, _I’m going to beat you at your own game._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a challenge nailing the complex and ever-changing dynamic between these two, I hope I'm doing them justice! 
> 
> If you like this story, it's got similar vibes to my PxS fic, His Cage, His Queen. A03 is THE BEST, for so many reasons which I want to write about sometime. But most of all, I love the fandom community.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please Read - 
> 
> There's a scene here that deals with the mythic church in this story and I hope it doesn't offend anyone. I only used it as a medieval-fantasy AU foil for the force/Rey's journey. I meant no comparison to real life, it just worked fictionally, but I wanted to warn in case it's triggering in any way. 
> 
> This fic does have some things more in common with a real-life AU or medieval world than the Star Wars realm, though. Accordingly, Rey has different emotions around fighting, murder, killing, war, etc. So there's more struggle than in canon.
> 
> Lastly, this took some time as my life went crazy! Future updates will be slow, but I think this only has two or three chapters left. I hope it's been a fun diversion, that's all it was ever intended to be. Thank you for reading!

On the surface, her captor stared. Brooding, darkly. Down the long wooden table, laden with foods neither he nor Rey touched.

It was a lie, his bold stare.

Rey could feel it concealing an undercurrent of apprehension from within Lord Kylo.

Whenever he snaked tendrils of inquisition into her mind, she turned him out. Whenever she sent tentative feelers into his, he shut her down.

Though they engaged in this silent, psychic combat from opposite ends of the table, the energy emitted from their bodies filled the room with an eerie force.

Rey’s own power awed her. She didn’t want to embrace it alone, explore the depths of this strange sorcery without anyone to turn to. But she _was_ alone.

The alternative was _him,_ and in the choice between the monster and loneliness, she’d choose isolation.

Rey practiced in her chambers every free moment that day. Before training with Kylo’s knights in the morning, and in the brief time before her maid dressed her for dinner. Using her mind, she called objects to her hands. Small, light ones at first. Then bigger. Faster.

The church would surely call it evil, but in the choice between purity and survival, she’d choose to fight.

Rey stood abruptly, ending the feigned supper on her own terms. She reached her arms behind her back, tugging at the laces on her corset. It had taken bending the maid’s will to coerce the girl into tying it loosely, into looking the other way while Rey wound the flexible, cotton binding around her breasts.

Kylo’s eyes flashed, watching Rey discard her corset to reveal the strips of beige cloth underneath. Before he could speak – though he didn’t look much capable of it anyway – she tied her skirt high on her legs, nearly showing the hem of her light gray undergarments.

“I want a sword,” she growled.

Kylo finally found his voice. 

“You’re not ready.”

Rey extended one arm, calling the shining blade hanging above the fireplace mantle to her hand.

Her chest swelled with an indulgent pride she didn’t want to admit.

She didn’t need sorcery to see the emotions flit over Kylo’s face. But it helped.

A boyish surprise that she wouldn’t back down.

A teacher’s satisfaction that she’d learned.

A conflicted… fear… on how to proceed.

_He didn’t want to hurt her._

Indignation flared in Rey that Kylo assumed he would need to hold back, as if humoring her. She held onto that emotion, scowling as she stalked toward the far end of the room and took position.

Reluctantly, Kylo rose.

“I offered you my hand last night. A part of you wanted to take it. Why didn’t you?”

“I see through the cracks in your mask,” Rey replied, ignoring the question. “You’re haunted.”

“I’ve long since seen through the cracks in yours, Rey. And I’m going to turn you to the dark side. When I offer you my hand again, you’ll take it.”

_Dark side?_

Kylo’s eyes never left hers as he mimicked the act of calling his sword to him. He positioned himself before her and raised his blade. He looked more formidable than ever. The ties on his shirt had been unlaced, revealing a triangle of smooth, muscular chest. Rey couldn’t swear she wasn’t a _bit_ intimidated.

She pushed the thought from her mind and tensed.

Quickly, Rey attacked, lunging with a grunt and pushing Kylo back.

The fear in his mind sent a dark rush through her, pushing her to fight harder. Every echo of their clattering swords bouncing off the stone walls spurred her on, thrilling her with a new power. Rey’s body moved as if she were possessed, spinning and ducking with a speed and grace she’d never known. She felt one with the blade; its energy seemed to run up her arm, melding with her flesh, singing through her veins.

Perhaps overconfidence made her careless when she tumbled out of Kylo’s reach and failed to quickly regain her feet.

Kylo hesitated in what could have been a rear assault…

…but would have necessitated cutting Rey with his blade.

Such coddling only made her angrier. Rey found her balance and spun on her heel, snarling. They danced one more, sweating and slashing at air, Rey pushing Kylo backwards again and _again._

Until finally, remarkably-

_Lord Kylo fell._

In an instant, Rey’s sword pressed to his heart, near hard enough to prick the skin. 

She would never know how much of the win was her _own_ power and how much was Kylo holding back, for fear of hurting her.

It didn’t matter.

His long body sprawled on the floor beneath her, bracing himself half-up on his arms. His eyes wide, imploring almost. He gulped heavy breaths of air in and out, synced with Rey’s own.

“I win,” Rey spat. There was nothing sing-song in her tone, the way there was in Kylo’s after each duel.

Through clenched teeth she commanded, _“I don’t want you to touch me.”_

In the next moment, Rey gasped. The palpable feeling of Kylo’s emotions hit her with a crushing weight.

The pain nearly made her stumble but she lifted her chin, determined to ignore it.

Rey lowered her sword.

She walked out of the room, leaving Kylo on the floor.

#

Rey failed to sleep peacefully that night, as she’d expected. There was something hollow in her victory. It may have had to do with the unwanted and growing connection she felt to Kylo, keeping her awake. The new sorcery coursing through her being was tainted. By _him._ _His_ thoughts and feelings violating her mind.

Monsters had no _right_ to feel distressed or… or… self-pitying. Even less to hoist that burden onto others. She could feel it cross the castle.

Was it a trick to stoke pity in her?

It wouldn’t work.

_Or else… was it her who reached for Kylo… not him pushing the feelings outward?_

Rey punched her pillow to fluff it and tossed onto her other side.

More than distress crept into her mind. _Desire_ violated her thoughts. His. For her.

She’d clenched her legs in response, unknowingly. Then she punched the pillow and tossed again.

Sleep would sever the unwelcome breach of her inner being, if she could just find it.

When Rey finally did slip into dreamland, her dreams were worse than pitiful.

They were _passionate._

Lies of lust.

Succumbing to the horrors Lord Ren forced upon her… not with resistance but with _assistance._

In her dreams, Rey’s own small hands found Kylo’s large ones. Locking fingers and guiding them onto the secret places of her body.

By her own will.

#

_Why wasn’t the Supreme Lord wearing a shirt?_

Rey blinked, wondering if this was another illicit dream. But she could feel the heat of the hearth behind him.

It burned brighter and higher than usual. That must have been the reason for the flush on her cheeks.

Kylo Ren wore only tight, dark breeches, laced high on his waist. Above, every inch of his strong form lay bare to her eyes. His massive chest, his powerful arms.

Rey did _not_ feel something warm in her gut as she took it all in.

She did _not._

“Shall we?” Kylo asked, yanking Rey back to reality.

_Right. So we aren’t even going to proceed with the pretense of dining first. Fine by me._

#

With her right hand, Rey drew her sword from its scabbard. Though new, the blade had already become a part of her. She even mind-tricked her maid into fetching the belt so that she could carry it with her at all times.

_Not mind-trick,_ she corrected herself. _That makes it sound evil._

_And the sorcery_ isn’t _evil if you’re using it to_ fight _evil._

Was it?

Sister Mildrith and Father Snoke might not make a distinction.

Rey hadn’t failed to notice the clothing provided her that evening was an undeniable, deeper shade of gray. Like the night prior, she used her newfound power to keep the laces of her corset loose, and Rey now removed the garment entirely. She stalked to face Kylo in their usual sparring point, but some devilry caught her, inspiring her fingers to find her skirts and rip them from her body completely.

_Easier to fight this way,_ she told herself.

_It’s not because you’re one-upping him in some strange game of stripping articles of clothing._

Kylo’s eyes drank her in, that fire behind them flickering.

_And it’s certainly not because you wanted that reaction. It’s not._

Neither of them said a word as they tensed to fight, muscles coiling. The energy from the shared dark sorcery coursed through their bodies and filled the room once more. As it thrummed in her blood, Rey could almost hear it humming outward in a circle around them.

Kylo attacked, charging at Rey at swinging his sword with forceful blows she could barely deflect.

Something was different about their fight that night, and it came from Kylo, his energy. Fiercer and more chaotic than usual. Rey couldn’t make sense of it and it frightened her.

If Kylo won and channeled that force into what came after… she couldn’t imagine what he’d do to her.

_Ravage her. It was his right. She was his wife. Why he hadn’t done so already was beyond her._

“Yield!” Kylo yelled, beating Rey back towards the stone wall.

“I’ll die first!” she shouted, bending her leg to shove Kylo backward with a powerful kick, using the wall as leverage.

“You’re still holding on. Let go!”

“You let go!” Rey countered, surprising herself. What did she even mean? What did she want from him?

For a few heartbeats, Rey thought she might beat Kylo again. Time slowed as she charged, bringing the fight to the center of the room once more.

But using two hands, Kylo swung downward with such force, Rey blinked in disbelief as he knocked the blade clear out of her grasp. Her sword hit the floor and Kylo used his mind power to push it further, sliding it out of reach. At the same time he raised his own sword, bringing the weapon up to her exposed neck. 

_She’d lost._

Kylo’s blade wedged below her chin, forcing Rey’s head up, baring her throat. She refused to close her eyes, determined to meet whatever befell her head-on. Her defiance was only slightly diminished by knowing Kylo could _feel_ the fearful pounding of her heart through their strange connection. Panting, Rey held Kylo’s dark eyes.

One slice and he’d slit her throat, ending her life.

_I prefer it,_ Rey thought. _Better to die than to go to bed with you._

A flicker, like a brief howl of pain, flashed behind his eyes. There and gone in a moment. His chest rose and fell with heavy breaths in unison with her own. It was the only sound in the vast, still room.

Suddenly, he tossed his sword onto the floor. It landed with a clatter, echoing throughout the silent hall.

Rey sucked in a sharp breath. Free, Kylo’s hands could do anything to her. Was he going to strip her again? Touch her wherever he chose? The Supreme Lord held her eyes and Rey dared not look away, afraid to miss his advance.

Instead, Kylo spun on his heel and stomped toward the door.

He moved so quickly Rey didn’t even have time to flinch before she realized he turned _away._

Mouth falling in surprise, she stared at Kylo’s back as he walked through the arched doorway, leaving her alone.

He left her alone.

Rey blinked… _Why?_

#

_He’s a monster and I need to leave,_ Rey thought.

_Since he left me alone, maybe he’ll let me escape. Maybe he’s too distracted to find me._

Rey concentrated on closing her mind as she rummaged through her wardrobe, seeking something warm to wear over the training clothes she’d already donned. Her hands clasped a thick cloak and her sturdiest boots, completing her preferred attire.

Perfect for riding.

For stealing a horse and racing out of this damnable castle.

She’d ride hard and fast back to Jakku to find Finn. Kylo hadn’t been very generous with information about her friend. Rey would make sure he remained unharmed and she’d whisk him away from the wretched village. If he indeed remained there. If he wanted, they’d take Rose with them. They’d ride to the farthest reaches of King Palpatine’s realm, perhaps beyond.

Where Kylo could never touch her.

_Why didn’t he touch her?_

_He’s confusing you on purpose,_ Rey thought. _It’s a game. He’s a monster._

What was that pestering feeling that irritated the base of her soul, like a pebble in her shoe she couldn’t dislodge?

Frustration? Rejection? Hurt?

_Don’t be ridiculous. That’s not_ your _emotion,_ she told herself. _You’re channeling Kylo’s._

#

Quick, agile, Rey slipped past the guards and into the castle stables. She used her sorcery to quiet the animals, then saddled a black mare nearest the door. The horse would be more difficult to spot in the darkness of night, though easier in the day. Rey wasn’t sure how far the ride to the Jakku village would be. Kylo’s keep wasn’t in her scavenging territory; it must be farther than she’d ever traveled.

Emerging quietly from the stables high upon the horse, Rey closed her eyes.

_Guide me back to Jakku,_ she… _willed_ or _asked_ of the sorcery, of the animal.

Rey didn’t understand how it worked, only that it did.

But instead of making her feel more connected, she felt more alone than ever. She had so many questions to ask and she would _never_ ask them of him.

Her mare began to gallop toward the trees and Rey rode tight and low.

#

Jakku was just as rundown as she remembered the little village and its nunnery. Worse, perhaps. The last few days in Kylo’s keep made Rey see the ramshackle buildings with new eyes.

_Not just my eyes,_ she thought. The despair the village emanated had become something Rey could sense with her mind. She detected something revolting beneath it, too, and hoped Finn was safe.

Rey had reached her old orphanage as the sun rose, which shouldn’t have been possible and made her wonder if the Supreme Lord shielded his dwelling with dark sorcery. But it _did_ help to explain how he so quickly captured her every time she ran away.

The strange sensation of _rot_ grew stronger as Rey dismounted and approached the church. Her nostrils flared; it was almost as if she could smell it.

When Rey pushed open the creaking church doors, she homed in on the source.

Father Snoke.

She could feel _and_ see his intentions.

He turned when she entered and in that instant, something overtook Rey.

“Run,” she told the cowering child, drawing her sword.

Her mouth dropped when Father Snoke lifted his hand and another sword floated on the air, into his grasp.

_How had she never before felt his power?_

Once again, crushing loneliness bore down upon her. So much she didn’t understand and failed to see.

With no one else to turn to, she closed her eyes and... asked for help. Called it, channeled it. It wasn’t as Sister Mildrith preached; Rey turned to the force of the sorcery and opened herself to its power.

Rushing forward, blade high, Rey attacked. Nothing resembled her sparring with Kylo. Pure rage surged through her, a righteous anger she’d never felt before. The force she’d called to her aided her and despite the power the old priest wielded, their fight was brief.

Rey swung, and her sword, possessed by magic, rendered an impossible cut. It cleaved Snoke’s head in two gory parts down the middle.

Her opponent dead, the fury abandoned Rey like the recession of a tidal wave, leaving her scared and sputtering.

_What had she done?_

Rey’s hands shook as she turned them over, eyes wide.

“Rey!”

Lord Kylo’s voice came from the open door of the church, but he sounded as if he shouted through a long tunnel.

Rey turned and ran, heading in the opposite direction, toward the antechamber behind the church alter.

_“No!”_

She heard Kylo’s cry before she felt the blade pierce her.

He was only a boy of ten or eleven. He thought he was avenging Father Snoke, protecting the other children. Rey could feel his innocence.

The blade punctured Rey’s abdomen, assisted by her own inertia, running forward and impaling herself as the child extended his arm.

Rey wasn’t thinking of herself as she slumped to the ground, dying. She felt Kylo’s overwhelming outrage, grief, and tried to soothe and fight him at the same time because he directed it at the boy who’d just stabbed her. Lashing out, Kylo used his power to swipe him away from Rey and she had to mentally embrace the child to protect him from smashing too hard against the stone wall, perhaps killing him.

She must have lost consciousness for a moment because the next thing she knew, Kylo laid her across his lap. One hand cradled the back of her neck, the other pressed against her fatal wound.

She didn’t understand what he was doing as he closed his eyes. It was too hard to think. Rey drifted off… somewhere. She closed her eyes.

When the pain began to abate, she felt pulled back into her body. Her eyes flew open. Her hand moved first, covering and grasping Kylo’s.

The monster looked down at her. His eyes were wet. The turmoil within him hit her, hard.

Worry for her. Overwhelming gratitude. _...Love?_ But on its heels nipped a rising anger. 

Lord Kylo was very upset with his wife.


End file.
